The Reds were hammered 4-0 by Tottenham at White Hart Lane and finished the game with nine men after both Charlie Adam and Martin Skrtel were dismissed.

Dalglish bemoaned his side’s lacklustre start in the capital and has warned he won’t tolerate a repeat ahead of Wednesday’s Carling Cup tie with Brighton.

“The boys are upset and so they should be,” he said.

“If they weren’t they wouldn’t be here. The football club expects more than a 4-0 defeat when you come away to play.

“To be fair to them they take pride in the club themselves as well so they’ll be as disappointed as anyone else.

“We started the game short of the level we have been at recently. They started better than us and (Luka) Modric scores a great goal to put them one in front.

“Then Daniel Agger gets injured in the process of trying to make the tackle but it’s a great finish.

“That was the start of our downfall. We started poorly and how you start the game dictates what you are going to get from it.

“It’s a horrible result. Probably the best performance from anyone at the football club was the fans.

“We’ll sit down and talk about it on Tuesday.”

Adam saw red inside the opening half hour after picking up two bookings and then Skrtel followed him in the second half as Liverpool were forced to play the final half hour with nine men. Both will serve one-match bans and sit out the midweek trip to Brighton.

Dalglish, who held talks with referees’ chief Mike Riley last week, looked less than impressed with official Mike Jones but refused to become embroiled in another row.

“We are better just leaving it,” he said. “It’s best left unsaid because whatever happens then takes away from a great performance from Tottenham.

“We’ll have a look at the video and if we’ve done something wrong then we can correct that.

“One thing that you didn’t see was a mass of Liverpool players running around the referee to dispute a decision.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that they agree with the decision.

“It’s just that they have respect for the referee. If you have respect for the referee I don’t see why there is (the suggestion) there is a disciplinary problem. We have a very good disciplinary record.

“The other incidents are best left unanswered. We can look at ourselves and the start we had in the game because that dictated what was going to happen to us.

“I think Tottenham started really well and played really well. It’s best that we stick to what we can dictate the future of.”

Daniel Agger went off in the first half with a rib injury which led to a debut for Sebastian Coates. The Reds are awaiting news on the extent of Agger’s problem.

Dalglish said: “It’s his rib cage. It happened when he slid in to make a challenge so I don’t know what it is yet. We don’t know how bad it is yet but it must be painful.”

Liverpool are set to be boosted by the return of Steven Gerrard for Wednesday’s Carling Cup tie at Brighton.

The Reds skipper is expected to play some part in the game against the Championship high-flyers after six months out but Dalglish refused to be drawn on the midfielder’s comeback plans.

“We’ll try to get over this before we start worrying about something else,” he added.

“I’ve said all along, Stevie has done fantastically well to get where he is. We’ll just monitor him and pick the right moment for him and us before we get him back.

“It’s natural everyone wants to chase for Stevie, especially after you have lost 4-0. But we’ll monitor it, take it how it goes and when both parties agree he’ll play.”